Placental Politics

“Densely woven through with fino’CHamoru (CHamoru language), Placental Politics explores how United States naval colonialism in Guam contributed to the creation of new kinds of women, both white American and CHamoru. . . . [A] uniquely engaging and exciting contribution to scholarship on colonialism in the Pacific and histories of Pacific women.”—Journal of Pacific History

“Placental Politics helps to recover Indigenous women’s agency as political actors and activists by honoring the various ways in which CHamoru women and pattera circumvent colonial institutions and ideologies to support community and cultural futurity. . . . I recommend this book to Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in North America, the Pacific Islands, and worldwide, as it is essential for understanding the importance of Indigenous women’s subtle yet powerful acts of self-determination and sovereignty.”—American Indian Culture and Research Journal

“A timely book for a multitude of audiences that will inspire more CHamorus and other Indigenous scholars to critically engage with famalao'an-centered histories.”—Native American and Indigenous Studies

“This rich, necessary, and passionate book deserves the widest possible audience.”—Women and Social Movements in the US

“DeLisle’s work shows us what decolonizing U.S. women’s history looks like. This is a well-balanced, carefully constructed, and powerfully persuasive account of how, why, and under what conditions CHamoru women flourished, even when they were in the embrace — both tight and loose — of apparently well-meaning imperialist women.” — Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois

“DeLisle reckons with U.S. imperialism and CHamoru history by placing Indigenous and white women at the center of the story. This deliberate reworking of what has been predominantly a monologue of male- and white-narrated history compels DeLisle to ask new questions that are vitally important to understanding ongoing imperialism and Indigenous resistance in Guam as well as in other colonized places. This book will facilitate ways of seeing the world through lived colonial realities.” — Mary Jane Logan McCallum, University of Winnipeg